Leadership Recruitment

So much of what we do here on the campus of SDSU (rhymes), is done through and dependent on the nature of our student leaders.  How many do we have?  Are they soled out on the gospel and the need for ministry? How mature are they? Are they teachable/humble and willing to learn and be corrected and guided? These and so many more things make an enormous difference to how the ministry 'on the ground' actually goes.

This weekend is our "Recruitment" weekend, tonight for about 3 hours and most of the day tomorrow we'll be going over some leadership skills, theological/biblical convictions that we love, what 'discipleship' and 'evangelism' are and why they matter, and more.

I'm excited, and we would very much appreciate and 'covet' your prayers for us these following hours.  Please pray God would bring conviction to potential student leaders, that He would grant Brando and I clarity and conviction in the teaching, and that we would gain some new student leaders that would make a difference for the outreach and discipleship of this ministry for next year.

(I couldn't find the most recent leadership photo from our last Spring weekend, but here are some older ones...cause I just don't like posting without a picture :)

Speaking at the Philosophy Club...most likely

Quick Update and prayer request:

Spent a couple hours today at the weekly "Free Book Friday" (FBF) booth on campus.  Gave away 5 books, 3 of which were the focus book of the day "What's Your Worldview?"by James Anderson.

I usually spend 70% of my time at FBF standing speaking with students, and 30% trying to get through my to-do list.  Today, I spent almost the whole time standing and talking with students, much of which was talking with a student who leads or helps lead the SDSU Philosophy Club.  I met him this past summer, and have spoken with him several times since.  Today he stopped and we had a good conversation regarding the nature of the book, which is essentially written like a "choose your own adventure" novel, except that you answer questions to determine what your 'worldview' is, or simply "what you believe".  It's very cool, and he was interested.  After talking about it for awhile, he invited me to speak at their club, and I agreed.  However, we need to finalize a date (their meetings have a bit of conflict with Equip large group meetings), as well as figure out what I'm actually going to speak on.  

So, the prayer request is simple: please pray for wisdom to decide what to speak on, to do it well, and that a date could work out.  I'm eager for the opportunity to speak to students who choose to be involved in a philosophy club, and want to display Christ well, make him known through whatever topic might be addressed.  

Ps.  Here is the video I played from 11:00-1:00 to advertise the book.  It's not actually a video about the book, but it's pretty close. 

Killjoys:the Seven Deadly Sins

Joe, who was very interested, said several times he would see me Wednesday

I started with 5 books today at the booth for "Free Book Fridays".  Before I could take a picture of the beautiful display I had set up of all 5 books laid out in front of Piper's short book trailer video playing, I had 4 different guys come up to me interested in the book. I had the opportunity to describe to them sin and who God is. It was great! Relatively short conversations, but I got emails and phone numbers. I'll be following up with each one of them in perhaps a month or so, asking what they thought of the book. I got to explain Equip a bit to them and invite them into fellowship.  I'm especially excited in getting to get SOLID and Christ-exalting books into students hands.

Please pray these students would read these books and that through that, they would be convicted by the Holy Spirit to repent and/or be deeply impacted about the glory and greatness of Jesus Christ.

We also make other books available. Two of the guys who took the Killjoys I also put Dont Waste Your Life into their hands. We have like 100+ more of those in the office, so I take those opportunities whenever I can. 

Pastors Conference

A last minute change of plans, but a very silver lining: my wife (and child, she refused to hire a babysitter) was able to join me at the Desiring God's Pastors Conference this year!  It's already been really good. Very refreshing and already some convictions in various areas. 

You can watch the live stream at http://www.desiringgod.org/live. 

Or tweets at #DGPasCon

Walking Awareness

The title is my best attempt at a cool alliteration...

We've (finally) got new Equip T-shirts designed, printed and passed out to students!

 It's been a bit longer than I'd like to admit since we've done shirts.  And, although a new t-shirt isn't at the top of our ministry priority list, they none-the-less play a role.  For one, new shirts are always fun...so theres that.  But also, we have 2-3 dozen shirts 'walking' around campus on a regular basis with Equip's name and mission statement on them.  This can really help in making students aware of our presence on campus, of being interested in what the mission statement is all about, and whatever else.

Anyway, whatever shirts do, I thought you'd like to see them...I think they look awesome (my wife designed them, so I'm biased...but I'm right :)

Modeling the shirt is a handsome model we hired.

Free Book Fridays

We've started a new resource distribution initiative on campus.  We're calling it "Free Book Fridays", and it's pretty self-explanatory.
Every (most) Friday for the semester, we're putting up a booth in the Student Union for a couple hours.  Each time we'll be featuring a different book that we hope will be especially relevant or helpful to the 10,000+ students that go in and out of the Union each day.

Today was the first Friday for this dealio, and I had the privilege to chat with "Nick" and "Mackenzie" for quite awhile.  Nick was quite excited to have seen the booth, and tells me he'll see me next Wednesday at our large group meeting.  He asked me near the end of our conversation, "So, you'll be here every Friday?", "yep, most every Friday", "that's awesome, I'll see you every time!"
He was quite excited about it.
So, hopefully the distribution will increase to more than Nick and Mackenzie, but giving away four books the first week feels like a successful and worthwhile time.

Please pray it would increase, and that the fruit and impact of Christ-centered, biblically faithful resources would have an increasingly powerful effect in the lives of those we might not otherwise have the opportunity to effect.

It begins

We are off and rolling again! 

Students started classes yesterday, so we put up our Equip booth for a couple hours and today as well. 

About 10 minutes after the booth was up, we had a young woman who transferred from Indianapolis. She marked all 10's on her survey "interested in knowing God more...in Christian fellowship...etc." She says she reads her Bible every day, which is always encouraging, at least on the surface level.   Please pray that 'Jayma' would come tomorrow to our large group meeting, and especially that she'd get plugged into some relationships early.  

This was my attempt at a sign...

This was Kate's vast improvement (Kate got involved in Equip last semester)

Valarie and Trent manning the booth.  (actually, Trent was just stopping by, Val was there with me the whole time)